Although Galton was not the first to propose the use of fingerprints
for identification (Sir William Herschel had used them in India
for this purpose) he was the first to place their study on a
scientific basis and so lay the groundwork for their use in criminal
cases. He was able to collect a large sample of prints through his
Anthropological laboratories, eventually amassing over 8,000 sets. His
study of minutiae in prints provided the foundation for meaningful
comparison of different prints, and he was able to construct a statistical
proof of the uniqueness, by minutiae, of individual prints.

Galton also provided the first workable fingerprint classification
system, which was later adapted by E. R. Henry for practical use in police
forces and other bureaucratic settings. Most of all, Galton's
extensive popular advocacy of the use of prints helped to convince a
skeptical public that they could be used reliably for identification.

For the popular controversy over the role of Henry Faulds in the
discovery of fingerprinting, see the following
review of the evidence. Not also
that the major works on
fingerprinting by E. R. Henry, William Herschel and Henry Faulds are now
available here in full-text facsimile form.

Galton published two major works about fingerprints. The cover of the
first, Finger Prints, contained a full set of his own prints
He also published an important
booklet on decipherment of blurred fingerprints:

Galton also published a great number of scholarly papers, popular
articles, letters and interviews on the subject of fingerprints.
This was important groundwork, and prepared the way for the positive
findings of the Parliamentary committee of 1894, which soon led to the
acceptance of fingerprint testimony in the courts, to identify recidivists,
and later to their forensic use.